James Clerk Maxwell was born on June 13, 1813 in Edinburgh Scottland. After being homeschooled, until age16, he then proceeded to go to Edinburgh Academy. It was there that he picked up the nick name "Dafty". One of Maxwell best friends inschool and for the rest of his life, P G Tait, said some th ings about Maxwell whle they were at schools together, "At school he was at first regarded as shy and rather dull. he made no friendships and spent his occasional holidays in reading old ballads, drawing curious diagrams and making rude mechanical models. This absorption in such pursuits, totally unintelligible to his schoolfellows, who were then totally ignorant of mathematics, procured him a not very complimentary nickname. About the middle of his school career however he surprised his companions by suddenly becoming one of the most brilliant among them, gaining prizes and sometimes the highest prizes for scholarship, mathematics, and English verse."
Advances in Photography:
Another one of Maxwells passions was studying color, and how different people see diffreent colors, and the reason for color blindness in sertain individuals. One of his many great achievents, is creating the very first colorphotograph (left). He produced this by using filters in different for example red, green, and blue. This process called the "Trichromatic Process" is now the background information needed to make modern day color photos. Maxwell also discovered and postulized that visible light is not the only frequencies that electromagnetic energy can have.He found that visible light, infact, is only a small portion of a larger spectrum.
Advances in Mathematics and Science:
One of James Clerk Maxwell's most famous discoveries was his equations that linked magnetism with electricity, which is also know as "Maxwells Equations". With this new discovery, it opened a world of new things for scientists including the development of Quantum Physics in the early 1900's, and this led to Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. Maxwell's infromation also assisted Einstein's work on the theory of relativity becasue he calculated the speed of electromagnetic waves and defined that light is "a form of electromagnetic radiation exerting pressure and carrying momentum," and this information helped Einstein alot, or else he might have not made some of the discoveries that he did. To the right is just one example of Maxwell's equation's.
Many believe that James Clerk Maxwell was one pf the greatest scientist that ever lived because of his life changing discoveries. Where would we be without them? To learn alittle bit more, or just sum up on the information on this page about James Clerk Maxwell, click here.
James Clerk Maxwell was born on June 13, 1813 in Edinburgh Scottland. After being homeschooled, until age16, he then proceeded to go to Edinburgh Academy. It was there that he picked up the nick name "Dafty". One of Maxwell best friends inschool and for the rest of his life, P G Tait, said some th ings about Maxwell whle they were at schools together, "At school he was at first regarded as shy and rather dull. he made no friendships and spent his occasional holidays in reading old ballads, drawing curious diagrams and making rude mechanical models. This absorption in such pursuits, totally unintelligible to his schoolfellows, who were then totally ignorant of mathematics, procured him a not very complimentary nickname. About the middle of his school career however he surprised his companions by suddenly becoming one of the most brilliant among them, gaining prizes and sometimes the highest prizes for scholarship, mathematics, and English verse."
Advances in Photography:
Another one of Maxwells passions was studying color, and how different people see diffreent colors, and the reason for color blindness in sertain individuals. One of his many great achievents, is creating the very first colorphotograph (left). He produced this by using filters in different for example red, green, and blue. This process called the "Trichromatic Process" is now the background information needed to make modern day color photos. Maxwell also discovered and postulized that visible light is not the only frequencies that electromagnetic energy can have.He found that visible light, infact, is only a small portion of a larger spectrum.
Advances in Mathematics and Science:
One of James Clerk Maxwell's most famous discoveries was his equations that linked magnetism with electricity, which is also know as "Maxwells Equations". With this new discovery, it opened a world of new things for scientists including the development of Quantum Physics in the early 1900's, and this led to Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. Maxwell's infromation also assisted Einstein's work on the theory of relativity becasue he calculated the speed of electromagnetic waves and defined that light is "a form of electromagnetic radiation exerting pressure and carrying momentum," and this information helped Einstein alot, or else he might have not made some of the discoveries that he did. To the right is just one example of Maxwell's equation's.
Many believe that James Clerk Maxwell was one pf the greatest scientist that ever lived because of his life changing discoveries. Where would we be without them? To learn alittle bit more, or just sum up on the information on this page about James Clerk Maxwell, click here.
Works Cited
"Biography Wanted." Biography James Clerk Maxwell. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2011. <biographywanted.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Maxwell.jpg>BipolarPics. " The Legacy of James Clerk Maxwell - YouTube ." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. . N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=zgBc3_HKolM>.
"James Clerk Maxwell(1831-1879)."UC Santa Barbara Geography. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2011. <http://www.geog.ucsb.edu/~jeff/115a/history/jamesclarkemaxwell.html>
"Maxwell biography." GAP System for Computational Discrete Algebra. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2011. <http://www.gap-system.org/~history/Biographies/Maxwell.html>.
"Milestones in Photography -- National Geographic." Photography and Photos of the Day - National Geographic. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2011. <http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photos/milestones-photography/#/color-tartan-ribbon_1376_600x450.jpg>
"The Impact of James Clerk Maxwell's Work." James Clerk Maxwell Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2011. <http://www.clerkmaxwellfoundation.org/html/maxwell_s_impact_.html
"The Physics of Light: Maxwell's Equations." ThinkQuest : Library. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2011. <http://library.thinkquest.org/27356/p